Interaction 09: Fiona Raby

In her Interaction 09 keynote, Fiona Raby discussed the esoteric side of the interaction between people and things.

Design can be used to ask questions not just solve problems. This is a discursive role for design.

Our machines may be over-rationalized. This is a concern because it is the biological bits that are the problem. People are difficult & irrational. Many designers are afraid of this perspective.

Discursive design uses satire to keep a discussion going

Product design has an interesting relationship with people. It’s a popular expressive part of our culture. People regularly imagine how objects can change their lives.

The weighing scale might be one of the most damaging of all “watered down” robots. Alternate concepts include: a large scale that allows you to stand where you want to shift weight; a scale that does not show weight to the person standing on it; a scale that sends weight via SMS to specific people.

Simple objects can place people right into issues and ideas. Take abstract ideas and put them into families in ways that force conversations. This is a way that design can ask questions.

HomeHome"Questions about whether design is necessary or affordable are quite beside the point: design is inevitable. The alternative to good design is bad design, not no design at all." Douglas Martin, 1989